Learn more about the artist
Hello and welcome to my first blog post! I'm a self taught jewelry designer with a broad range of interests and hobbies. I aim to share jewelry making techniques, various crafts and home decorating ideas and I also aim to share with you some of the behind the scenes of my work and what inspires me. I'll also feature other artists whose work I admire and since I love the outdoors and nature I'll share some of our adventures as we live in the Pacific NorthWest which is a particularly gorgeous part of the USA.
Kicking off, I thought I’d share 10 random and possibly unknown facts about me.
My real name is Andrea and I grew up in South Africa, from immigrant stock on both my parent’s side with a real Heinz 57 of nationalities, with some going back several generations. My husband was also born in South Africa.
I’ve loved horses as long as I can remember and it was my life-long dream to have a horse. We finally got one when our girls were preteens. We had him for 8 years and it was the best 8 years ever. The lessons our horse taught all of us were invaluable.
I broke my arm off a horse when I was 9. Did it deter me from wanting lessons, absolutely not.
I learned to knit at the age of 6 and at school (it was a girls school with uniforms and all) every year we’d have a knitting project for charity. So with time I graduated from squares for blankets to hats, to cardigans with buttons (the recipients were orphanage kids). I crocheted after I was 12 because you could get blankets done way quicker than if you knitted them.
I speak 4 languages, English is my home language, Afrikaans is another language in South Africa, which I am not quite fluent in. I also did French at school and I’ve got enough knowledge of German to purchase food, buy train tickets or clothing and order at a restaurant.
Art was one of my favorite classes and I did it all the way to the end of my high school years. It was also my major in my Education degree.
My degrees are in teaching and Human Resource Management. I taught for 2 years in South Africa. The main part I enjoyed about teaching was art and craft classes and my extra curricula art club which had incredibly talented kids in it. I loved inspiring those kids to reach their creative potential. My education degree is what helped me be comfortable with homeschooling our two daughters until they went to community college at aged 16.
Although I attended an Anglican school and went to chapel every week, I knew I’d been faking religion when I attended a high school aged youth group and could see what authentic Christianity really looked like. I’ve not looked back since.
I’m entirely self-taught as a jewelry artist, but I did learn soft soldering techniques as part of a stained glass course that I did when we first moved to the US in 1993. I actually transitioned to making jewelry from making stained glass mobiles and sea glass mobiles.
My other hobbies are rock climbing, drawing, hiking, cooking and baking, cycling, gardening and kayaking. Thanks for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a bit better.
Thanks for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a bit better.
